It looks genuine to me. I studied those coins quite a lot, but unfortunatelly only from pictures, as I have never owned one yet, so you cannot take my words as 100% true. I do not see any signs of fake in your coin.Good catch !

Awesome find! Mr. Ge's book has that as four and a half stars rare and mintage of only 50!That is something to consider when you insure shipping/claim value to NCS/NGC.It does not look bad and I think NCS will improve it greatly.You should not despair if it does not grade high because it is so-o-o rare.

Wow very cool !!! yes only 50 minted :) it is one of the holy grail of brass coins ,if my memory serves me correctly apx 3 years ago one sold at a highly publicized auction in hong kong I believe for apx the equivalent of 64,000 usd it had a box and coa but was ungraded ,Peter Anthony might have some auction records or data?? I personally sold a 1983 ms 70 NGC graded coin for the equivalent in trade 5,000 usd and the 1983 is no where near as rare as the 1985 ,if it is my coin I would have it graded and conserved ASAP ,being brass the fingerprints might lift right off:) Either way Congrats and thanks for sharing your find! please post pictures if you grade and conserve it..

comments from an article written by Peter AnthonyCHINESE COINS: 5-STAR PANDASPosted by Peter Anthony on 8/21/2014The earliest and perhaps best known are the 1 Yuan brass Pandas that were minted from 1983-1985. Most of these were distributed as gifts or premiums by Panda coin distributors and dealers. Because brass readily reacts with air many surviving coins have black spots or other impairments. They are now highly collectible. MS 69 examples of 1983 and 1984 1 Yuan Pandas can sell for hundreds of dollars. The 1985 is considered a great rarity; auction prices for it have topped $50,000.

IMO, this coin is genuine, even the proof surface is toned heavily and can not be seen clearly. For further confirmation, the coin weighs 17.5 gm with a diameter of 32mm.

The cost of NCS will be more than $1,000 since this coin, regardless of grade, has a valuation north of $35,000, even at the current market. My recommendation will be DIY by leaving in the extra pure olive oil for few hours. If you have an ultrasonic bath, use it. It will be helpful to turn on the bath few times to accelerate the removal of toning. Make sure the bottom of the bath is covered with a soft material, such as cotton clothes. The olive oil can be removed by dipping into acetone for few second, then dry it immediately. The fingerprints on brass coin are very difficult to remove and may not be removable by olive oil or NCS. If some of toning still can not be removed by olive oil, this will suggesting that the surface is corroded, then submitting to NCS/NGC is required to preserve the condition of the coin. PCGS also has the comparable service.

Usually this coin does not show a good condition. There are total 13 of this coin graded by NGC (9, 2 of them 69 and 1 68) and PCGS (4, no higher than 67). Attached is picture of PCGS PR67 copied from PCGS website.

This is a great coin and very difficult to find. Can you provide the pedigree?

I am also not very sure, as the pics are a little blurred, but I do suspect, that those fingerprints on the coin are not corroded yet, just fat leftovers and there is a high bet, that the coin will look nice after procedure described by poconopenn.Just one thing: be really carefull after aceton bathing ( aceton wash is really needed to remove olive oil, I would even suggest to neutralize it with soap before aceton wash), it should be dried really fast with air-flow (no way to dry it with any material as hairlines will appear). Aceton might "burn" the brass irreversible - the coin can change its color.

Send the coin in to NCS put a value of 5000 on the coin and let the professionals conserve it IMHO,brass is very tricky ,NCS wont question your 3 to 5000 valuation on the form :) just my opinion no way would I would fool with that coin with acetone, olive oil and soap maybe but I would leave that to professionals we are talking about a 25,000 ++++ coin here .my opinion is not to fool with it burning the brass with acetone is a strong possibility!!!!

The Pedigree, ive found the seller some months ago here in Germany. i have write him over many weeks, but he was the most time offline. Over the weeks he get more and more private bids from buyers. But about the Long time all buyers are still offline and i was the last one with the last bid :) Now its here.. Think the coin was from MDM (German Coin Seller). They have bought all China Coins in this time. I think they get some 1985 Pandas and have sold them pherhaps for special customers. Im sure, they will be some more coins.

Just want to reiterate the declared value you want to put on the NCS/NGC form. As the saying go, hope for the best and plan for the worst. If for some reason, the coin is lose, you want to make sure you are covered for what is worth.

DIY conservation is part of fun for hobby in coin collection. Olive oil treatment is a non-invasive and simple method to remove toning of copper coin. It will work for most lightly toned copper coin. Perhaps, I should emphases more about the acetone wash step. I did mention the wash step be performed just for “few seconds” and dry the coin immediately to make sure that no residue of acetone and moisture left on the coin surface. The best way is to use a squeezable solvent bottle to rinse the coin surface with acetone for few seconds. Please note that most acetone in the market does have a small amount of water in it. The dry away the water in the acetone is the key step of the treatment. Usually, use a hair dryer will do the job. The soap water is another way to remove the olive oil, followed with extra wash with de-ionized water to remove the soap residue on the coin surface, then, dry the coin with a hair dryer. My experience with few seconds acetone wash is very effective in remove olive oil and non-invasive. In addition, acetone rinse also can remove any potential “invisible PVC residue” on the coin surface. To minimize the risk, try to practice with a low value brass medal prior to expensive one.

Product such as “SafeClean”, which is the combination of vegetable oils and surfactants in water, based on the same scientific principal as mentioned above, also works very nicely to remove the toning and dirty deposit on the surface of copper coin.

In addition to the potential insurance coverage issue mentioned by PandaOrLunar, there is another unintended consequence to submit coin to NCS with a lower declared value. Usually, the lower value coin will be assigned to Jr. staff of NCS to do the conservation. Majority coin submitted to NCS is just a number to NCS staff, nothing special about it. But with a declared value of 5 figures, the coin may be handled very differently and the conservation job will be done by a more experience Sr. staff.

" DIY conservation is part of fun for hobby in coin collection"Really ??? LOL I would certainly question how much fun potentially ruining a coin of that value is?? I have conserved a fair amount of coins, probably have sent a few hundred to NCS and at least a couple of thousand to NGC ............. here is my rule for myself .if a coin is worth over $500 usd and it is silver ,brass or copper I leave it to the professionals, gold is way more forgiving to "conservation fun" so i raise my limit to $1000 .no one but a professional should touch a coin of that value IMHO

comments from an article written by Peter AnthonyCHINESE COINS: 5-STAR PANDASPosted by Peter Anthony on 8/21/2014The earliest and perhaps best known are the 1 Yuan brass Pandas that were minted from 1983-1985. Most of these were distributed as gifts or premiums by Panda coin distributors and dealers. Because brass readily reacts with air many surviving coins have black spots or other impairments. They are now highly collectible. MS 69 examples of 1983 and 1984 1 Yuan Pandas can sell for hundreds of dollars. The 1985 is considered a great rarity; auction prices for it have topped $50,000.

You are comparing two different things: one - silver and medal with not exactly circulation coin, but from this category, I thing there is about 1000 times more collectors of circulation commemorative coins than those collecting silver coins of PRC. And about even 100x less collecting medals.And for those collectors of non- PM coins this is a coin everyone is dreaming of. At least in my want list it is on the first place together with mint set of 1986 and PROOF version of 40 years of PRC. I am also collecting silver PRC coins, but medal is something that I would buy at reasonable price a little above bullion value if the opportunity comes.I attended local auction yesterday and the hall was almost empty, when the medals were sold. In case of coins and banknotes it was fully packed

But for this 1985 coin I donot think the price of $50000 is OK, One member of this forum posted the 67 grade coin that was sold at 40000 if I am not mistaken, search engine on this forum does not cooperate with me too well

You are comparing two different things: one - silver and medal with not exactly circulation coin, but from this category, I thing there is about 1000 times more collectors of circulation commemorative coins than those collecting silver coins of PRC. And about even 100x less collecting medals.And for those collectors of non- PM coins this is a coin everyone is dreaming of. At least in my want list it is on the first place together with mint set of 1986 and PROOF version of 40 years of PRC. I am also collecting silver PRC coins, but medal is something that I would buy at reasonable price a little above bullion value if the opportunity comes.I attended local auction yesterday and the hall was almost empty, when the medals were sold. In case of coins and banknotes it was fully packed

I agree. It is not fair to compare coins meant for circulation, coins meant for collection only, and medals as art pieces. Circulating coins are everyday objects, with a low entry threshold and they have a much, much larger collector base. Relative rarity is the key to price rise, like the circulating coin to commemorate the 40 years of the People's Bank of China, which rose 3000 times in value since 1989, with a mintage of 2.06 million.

The price of rare coins meant for circulation are a bit too high for me, $20,000 to $50,000. I will stick w/ the low price, low mintage medals as art pieces and some overlooked silver coins of PRC. Medals are still seated at the back of the bus. Hopefully as this market matures the unloved medals/silver coins will see some parity in price. After all low mintage is just that.............anyway we look at it, this is a immature market w/ a bright future......

The price of rare coins meant for circulation are a bit too high for me, $20,000 to $50,000. I will stick w/ the low price, low mintage medals as art pieces and some overlooked silver coins of PRC. Medals are still seated at the back of the bus. Hopefully as this market matures the unloved medals/silver coins will see some parity in price. After all low mintage is just that.............anyway we look at it, this is a immature market w/ a bright future......

It costs a lot less to go into circulating coin collection than into the precious metal coin collection. The 85 copper Panda is a special case as it sits across both circulating coin and precious coin categories. The topmost circulating coin, 40 Year Anniversary of PRC proof, is about $20,000. But you can also spend 30 bucks on a 97 circulating coins set, which also has a big upside.

Mr. Sun Keqin's catalog on circulating coins will be updated early next year, with price guides. It has English translation in most sections. That will help with those interested in Chinese circulating coin collection.

It costs a lot less to go into circulating coin collection than into the precious metal coin collection. The 85 copper Panda is a special case as it sits across both circulating coin and precious coin categories. The topmost circulating coin, 40 Year Anniversary of PRC proof, is about $20,000. But you can also spend 30 bucks on a 97 circulating coins set, which also has a big upside.

Mr. Sun Keqin's catalog on circulating coins will be updated early next year, with price guides. It has English translation in most sections. That will help with those interested in Chinese circulating coin collection.

FWIW - I find trying to collect circulating proof coins from the US extremely challenging...they just don't exist. Alternatively, proof sets offer an excellent entry point for beginner collectors....they are somewhat available in the US on an infrequent basis, have a low entry point in terms of price point, and have relatively low mintages for some of the later years 1991 -2000.

FWIW - I find trying to collect circulating proof coins from the US extremely challenging...they just don't exist. Alternatively, proof sets offer an excellent entry point for beginner collectors....they are somewhat available in the US on an infrequent basis, have a low entry point in terms of price point, and have relatively low mintages for some of the later years 1991 -2000.

Ultra cameo (UC) is preferred over cameo (CA). Most proof coins should receive the ultra cameo designation, but occasionally it will get cameo when the contrast between the frosted devices and the mirrored background is lesser than it should. There are 3 cameo in the 1985 yuan panda. I know of two: 3365264-001, 2776530-008. It is hard to see the differences in photograph. Here are three ultra cameo examples of 1985 yuan panda: 3364396-001, 2765294-002, 3307411-001.

You did sent it through NCS, right? Did NCS removed most of the finger prints?

It should be the one from the Macau-Auction. That explains the "low" 23.000$ Price.The coin was ungraded and it was a game and risk to get a PF-grade.

This is clearly a situation where half a loaf of bread is better than none. I have shivers thinking about this coin and what I could do if I come across it in an instant "buy" situation. I can't see how I can resist pulling the trigger. Yet that could blow a hole (crater more like) through my rainy day fund!

There is a new PFUC69 out.If i right, its a coin from Germany again.Ive got an offer of a very large China collection (include the 100 yuan set 1995 with Pagode) and alot more, think the value of the set should be 500.000 Euros complete.

But i dont get it, the seller means the 1985 coin coast just some thousand euros, but he dont want sell it to me It was a set of all three years with 1983, 1984 and 1985 in capsule and wrapped in foil.